PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani has told CNN that he has been “very supportive” of his continued efforts to dig up dirt on Democrats in Ukraine, including his most recent trip to the Eastern European country.
The admission bolsters a central Democratic argument of the impeachment proceedings: that the President has allowed his personal attorney to push Ukraine for investigations that benefit Trump’s political agenda.
U.S. lawmakers gathered yesterday to set the rules of the debate and vote on the President’s impeachment on the floor of the House of Representatives.
The House rules committee will lay out the framework for the vote, including the length of time for arguments.
Depending on the outcome, a full vote by all members of the House could take place today or tomorrow.
In a phone conversation with CNN yesterday, Giuliani suggested that Trump has been well aware of everything he has done in Ukraine, though he declined to say if Trump directed him to go on his most recent trip there.
“We’re on the same page,” Giuliani said of Trump.
Visiting Ukraine earlier this month, Giuliani claimed he gathered evidence of a wide-ranging conspiracy to prevent his and the President’s efforts to uncover years of corruption there. In Giuliani’s view, that corruption chiefly involves Trump’s domestic political opponents, including Joe Biden as well as Hillary Clinton.
Unprompted, Giuliani emphasised that he and the President are “on offence” when it comes to pursuing dirt on Democrats.
“Just in case you think we’re on defence, we’re not,” Giuliani said. In recent days, he has given a series of interviews about his Ukraine exploits to national news outlets, including The New York Times, Fox News and the New Yorker. Giuliani’s comments come as Democrats in the House prepare to vote on articles of impeachment against the President.
In his interview with CNN, Giuliani spoke at length about former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was removed from office earlier this year and has become a central figure in the impeachment inquiry. Giuliani claimed Yovanovitch perjured herself during her congressional testimony last month and that she should be charged with obstruction of justice.
He declined to offer specific evidence that would back up his claim, though he insisted he has it.
“I needed Yovanovitch out of the way,” Mr Giuliani also told the New Yorker.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, rejected a Democratic proposal to call four witnesses in the trial in the upper chamber.
Among the people the Democrats want to hear from is John Bolton, the former national security adviser, and White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.
McConnell, who said he is coordinating his moves with the White House, denounced the Democrats’ strange request to have witnesses, calling it a fishing expedition.
“The House is poised to send the Senate the thinnest, least thorough impeachment in our nation’s history,” McConnell argued on the Senate floor.
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